Wild Hunt #01
By Elsepth Cooper
Gair is under a death sentence. He can hear music - music with power - and in the Holy City that means only one thing: he s a witch and he s going to be burnt at the stake. Even if he could escape, the Church Knights and their witchfinder would be hot on his heels while his burgeoning power threatens to tear him apart from within.
There is no hope...none, but a secret order, themselves persecuted almost to destruction. If Gair can escape, if he can master his own growing, dangerous abilities, if he can find the guardians of the Veil, then maybe he will be safe.
Or maybe he ll discover that his fight has only just begun.
1. What started you writing, and is it the same thing that still inspires you today?
I can't really point to a single moment. I've always been imaginative - my parents read me Ivanhoe as a bedtime story, which sparked a love of epic adventure that I've never really grown out of, so I suppose we could blame them!
At school, I never had a problem making up stories and loved assignments that allowed me to express my creative side. I remember we were doing a project on Captain Cook once, and everyone else in the class had gone for a rather dry, fact-based approach, but I wrote mine in the style of a diary by one of the sailors, with Cook's discoveries interspersed with snippets of ship-board life, and pen-and-ink sketches in the margin. So even then I could feel the power of fiction, the pull of "what happens next", which still drives me today.
2. How many novels did you write before you got published?
Believe it or not, Songs of the Earth is my first finished novel. It was one of those stories that bit hard, and wouldn't let go.
3. What was the first thing you did when you found out a publisher wanted to print your work?
Apart from giggling and exclaiming "F***!" at the top of my voice? I re-read the email from my agent about a thousand times, opened a bottle of champagne, then treated myself to my first piece of serious jewellery as a reward.
4. What books, or authors, would you say have most influenced you in the type of writer you've become?
Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry books made quite an impression on me, and latterly his histories-that-never-were, like The Lions of al-Rassan. Guaranteed to make me cry - partly with envy, that he makes it all look so effortless. I admire Robert Holdstock's depth of scholarship, and the way he tapped into our ancient mythology without ever seeming to lecture, and touched the very roots of stories - Terry Pratchett explored similar ideas in Hogfather and Wyrd Sisters. The figuring out of where stories come from and how they evolve and change has always fascinated me.
5. Your debut novel is SONGS OF THE EARTH, can you tell us a bit about the story and how you came up with it?
It's about a novice Knight who can hear the songs of the earth, a magical power that infuses everything from the earth under his feet to the birds in the air, and manifests as a music that only the gifted can hear. Unfortunately, the Church thinks this makes him a witch and they've put him on trial for his life. The book follows his escape from the Holy City, and his journey to find the Guardians of the Veil who can teach him how to use his growing powers. On the way he discovers that what he's been taught by the Church is not the whole truth, and he's slap-bang in the middle of a much bigger conflict, with much higher stakes. He's been handed a weapon, and he has to decide what and who he's fighting for.
On the surface it's a fantasy adventure with swords and magic, but it also touches on things like the difference between religion and faith, persecution of those who are "different", and how history gets written by the victors.
Where it came from was twofold. I love my garden, and there have been times when I've stood outside on a summer morning and fancied I could hear the plants growing, which gave me the Song. The opening scene came to me pretty much out of the blue: I was incandescently angry, and I felt as if there was a force inside me that was trying to burst out John-Hurt-in-Alien-style. Suddenly there was Gair, alone in the dark, wrestling with the magic and terribly afraid that he was about to lose control . . .
The book just grew from there. Who was this person? How did he end up in an iron cell? Where were the guards taking him, and why? Before I knew it I was three chapters in, and Songs of the Earth was born.
6. Do you consciously chose themes to explore in your work or does it 'just happen'?
A bit of both. I consciously chose to feature a Church with a corrosive secret - the Catholic Church was very much in the news with the child abuse scandal that still rumbles on today. Tied in with that was the idea that history gets written by the victors, but the rest happened very organically, and sneaked up on me. It was only when I looked at the whole novel in the edit stage that I could see themes emerging, and teased them out a bit.
7. What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
Do you know, I've never really thought about that? The challenge for most people is probably sustaining the story to a satisfying conclusion. How many times have you read agents and publishers complaining that a really cool premise and engaging protagonist has run out of story and just fizzled out?
Personally, the biggest challenge writing a novel is the two-thirds blues: I get two-thirds of the way through and start hating the book, doubting myself and my abilities, and generally sinking into the mire of despondency. It doesn't last long (although at the time, it feels like forever) and then I get my spark back and we're off again.
And of course, now that I'm writing full time, the biggest challenge of all is not letting daily life overwhelm me. Sometimes, when you've got all day, you end up getting less done than you used to do when you were still working and you only had two hours writing time late at night, and had to make them count.
8. Do you use an outline when you write, or are you more of a discovery writer?
To use George RR Martin's phraseology I am a gardener rather than an architect, but I've looked at the picture on the seed-packet so I know what sort of story I'm growing. I have a general idea of what I'm doing and how it's going to end, but I don't write it all down in advance, or cover a pin-board with chapter summaries on 3x5 index cards and so forth. I've tried the methodical approach, laying out all my tools and blueprints, and it kills the writing stone dead for me. There's no magic left, and it becomes a chore.
Note I said "for me". Some authors wouldn't dream of building a book without all the scaffolding in place first, and if that's what works for them, great. More power to them. But for me, I write best organically: start with an idea and then just let it grow, pruning and training where necessary to ensure I hit the various landmarks on the way to the end, but how I get to each one is a voyage of discovery.
9. How much research do you do, and is it before or during the writing process?
Given the organic, free-range nature of my writing, I can't always know what I'm going to need to research before I start. I tend to stumble across things I need to know as I go, and research them then. Occasionally that means doing a bit of backing-and-filling if I find out I've got something wrong, but that tends to be just details.
10. Do you ever base your characters on people you know or have known?
Not consciously, although I've noticed I do borrow the odd character trait here and there. Gair, for instance, shares his self-sufficiency, his focus, his absolute sense of right and wrong, with my husband.
11. What is your work schedule like when you're in writers mode?
I've been known to work 14+ hours straight when everything's coming together - and sometimes when it's not, when only sheer pig-headedness keeps me at my desk. I can be very single-minded! Generally, I do emails, admin, social networking etc in the mornings, and write afterwards until I feel I've achieved enough for one day, or fall asleep/pass out with hunger, whichever comes first.
12. What do you do to relax, when you're not in 'writer's mode? (are you ever not in writer's mode?)
A part of my brain is always in writer's mode, chewing over plots and dialogue whilst I'm doing the dishes or whatever, but when I want to switch off I like to read, cook, potter in the garden, watch movies. I have to get out in the fresh air every day, if I can - I go stir-crazy indoors.
13. When you look back on writing career, although it has only just begun, is there anything you would've done differently? If so, what and why?
Maybe started sooner? I've been writing since I could hold a pen, pretty much, but I was 40 before I found the courage to seek out a literary agent, and even then it was mostly to stop my husband nagging me about it! But then, if I'd started sooner, there is a very real chance that Songs of the Earth would not exist in the way it does now, because I would not be the person I am.
14. Do you ever regret being 'self employed' (self motivating) and look longingly at people with 'normal' jobs - or you still hold down a 'day job'?
I worked in IT for 21 years - why on earth would I want to go back . . .
Being serious, I kind of miss the commute, because being on the train gave me two hours of prime reading time, but it was also killing me: in 2004 I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and I soldiered on for five more years before it became apparent that leaving the house at 7am and not getting home until 6pm was unsustainable, and I had to quit.
So regrets? Not really. I didn't have a choice about giving up the day job; it was a happy accident that Gollancz offered me a publishing contract at round about the same time, and it's pretty much my dream job. A believer might say when God closes a door, he opens a window . . .
15. How do you balance what you're reading against what you're writing?
When I'm writing, I don't really have a lot of time for reading - I feel guilty for neglecting my own characters - although sometimes reading someone else's prose is a great way to recharge my batteries, or serves as a prompt for nailing a tricky scene. I've never noticed a need to consciously balance anything; I'm generally just doing one or the other.
16. And finally, what future novels/ideas do you have in the works? What can your readers expect next?
Once The Wild Hunt is complete, I think we'll be staying in the milieu of the Empire for one more book, a darkly-humorous standalone story about a gentleman assassin who needs a *lot* of money by Tuesday week or he'll have to explain to his grandmother what happened to his inheritance, so he takes on a high-stakes, high-paying job that n
Publish Post
After that, I'm not sure. I'll have to see what other ideas have taken root!
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